Long time no see!

Wow! Long time no see!!! I've been pretty busy this whole time with the joys and struggles of Uni life that I unfortunately had to neglect this lovely blog (Ooops!!)

So what have I been up to? Well I moved into my new house with my awesome housemates in September- I can tell you it's fun but freezing! I cannot describe how cold it is- it actually makes me stay in the computer labs to do work it is that cold, and believe me when I say that's an achievement! but other than it being cold, it's actually a great house. Close to everything, and we have 2 yards! Not what you expect to get for a student house here I can tell you that much!

We students are imaginative when it comes to procrastination- literally a sofa bed

Coincidentally, since I'm living in a Student house, kinda means I'm back at uni again. The sweet joys of 3rd year, settling in to new classes, new people (since loads of my year are out on placement), and new, tougher work, which I'm definitely working very hard for....

Yes, very hard...








Gosh! All these math problems are pretty intense!







These graph looks oddly familiar...







So yea I don't do too well now with paying attention, it was just bound to happen! Pity it was always during class.... one class..... affectionately nicknamed Autobots (Assemble) since it's actually called Manufacturing, Automation and Robotics. Bit of a mouthful as you can tell.

Oh! And I've been getting requests for cakes!!!!!

Some haven't been to great since they were last minute asks, and I mean last minute! just a word of advice- If anyone asks you to make a cake, ALWAYS asks when it's for before agreeing or not.

I made a few more but I forgot to take pictures before they were taken away =[

But the last one was pretty bad since all the food colouring started seeping. In my defence, I was also getting ready to go to a Halloween Party though, so everything was crazy... including Dead Red Riding Hood

But the best costumes were my Superhero friends

Watchmen, Spiderman, Black Spiderman (NOT Venom), and Problem? Mexican

So Halloween, my favorite time of the year, came and passed, to let Christmas appear, and appear it did. With...

 
 ... My AWESOME new graphics tablet, which is awesome! these are only the coloured pics I've done, did I mention the tablet is awesome?

I've even started a short comic








Another little thing I've started, Judo. Being Ditzy is sometimes a bit of a problem when it comes to sports. I mean, I played everything I could get in to when I was younger; Hockey, netball, horse riding, cricket, football, cycling, cross-country running, MotoX, anything! But as I got older, I started to lose some of them purely because of other commitments, when I finally ended up with none of them, which is pretty crap!

But I'm slowly getting some back, plus a few new ones! From September I started Judo (which I love!) even though I tore ligaments in my shoulder in the first 2 weeks... and again 4 weeks after that, but since then I've been doing a lot better! In February I went to the All Ireland Inter-Varsity Judo Tournament and walked away with 2 golds and a bronze! I also now have a reputation as being a bit of a beast, since I broke my friends leg in her first fight, then helped another girl to the paramedics after strangling her to get the win. I'm not mean I swear! I'm just competitive....

Hence why I'm now trying out for a football team, and started cycling again to get ready for the Lap of the Lough, a brutal 85 miles if you don't cycle that often...

So that's pretty much the fun I've been up to! oh, And I turned 21 this year too, So now if I go to America or Canada, I can legally drink there!!! But I don't think I'll be drinking much if I do, you guys don't have any nice cider from what I hear... =P

Pony Perfecto!

So this has to do with my little cousin Alex's 9th Birthday. I made her a cake. but it wasn't just your ordinary square cake with candles, no, it had to be something awesome, something she liked.....

That's right. Horses. Of all the things she could have had on a cake, it is horses that she likes the most. This may take some skills....

So first thing first- Stencil. I drew the head of a horse and cut it out since there was no way I could stick a whole horse into a cake in so little time! After all, I was taking it to her that day!

 

Once that's done, start baking the cake! It's just a Victoria Sponge Cake, since Mum was helping and doesn't seem to realise when I set a recipe in front of her and say "make a cake please" that I meant that recipe for cake...

While that's cooking melt some chocolate and milk together to make a choccy syrup-y goo, and leave it to thicken. And try your hardest to not eat it- it will be used!!!

 The cake is still baking by this stage, so instead of twiddling thumbs, get cracking on that cocoa buttercream icing!! just keep adding cocoa powder until it looks like a colour that you like.

Cake's done! Let it stay in the tin to cool for a bit so it'll shrink and come out easier.

Ta Dah!  I stuck it on a hard place mat covered in tin foil so it looked a bit neater... cause that worked!

And now to the fun part. And when I say fun, I mean the most important part so don't be Ditzy!!! It's time to cut the cake. Stencils at the ready!!!! I ended up not only cutting the outline, but gauging with the stencil I even managed some 3D jazz for funsies on the body....

...which were then completely covered by the icing.

But it was all restored once the proper rolled icing was thrown on top of it and cut out, because then I could bring back some of the 3D shape again... YAY!!

And now some real sugary genius/madness, adding the eye and nostril, deepening the ears, and fixing all the mistakes.




Paint time! all I used was Food Bronzing Lustre, and Black food colouring straight onto the icing. The black didn't dry on the eyeball so it looked like it was a proper glazed eye which was such a bonus!



Remember that Chocolate that was melted earlier? yea? well I didn't =P It was meant to be used to draw all the dark, defining lines rather than the black food dye =/, but all was good since I still had some icing left over, so just had to beat it in to that
(I tried it both times and all I can say is adding the chocolate was soooooo much nicer than just the cocoa, it wasn't as so sweet tasting and sickening, so you could totally eat more cake than before).

Now just bung it into a piping bag and get piping a mane.


 

And Voila! Horse on a platter! 

 

It was safe to say by the look on Alex's face when I surprised her with the cake that she loved it! And while eating it the Choccy choccy Buttercream was in fact, going down a treat! 

The Week of Idiocy

Having the Blonde genes certainly destine one to a life where the phrase "stupid is as stupid does" becomes your life motto. At least it does for me!

So here's the reasons why I earn such a ditzy reputation in less than a week alone:

1. I managed to burn myself in work... REALLY badly... it's been almost a week and the burn is still red raw and aches so much!

2. the day after burning myself, I manage to rip the burn wide open -.- I am basically an idiot

3. I forgot my car ran on fuel and not air, so driving home at 12 at night and having my car break down wasn't the best of luck

4. My parents, brother, and his girlfriend, all of whom I know I could rely on to help me get home are ALL out of the country... I was nowhere near home when I broke down -.-

5. I have to go to the dentist. That's not so bad right? Unless the last time you were there you choked on the mouth wash they give you and you almost cover the nurse in it.... I have feared this moment knowing I'll have to face her again... I wonder if she will remember too?

and this has all happened within the space of 5 days...

I deserve to be blonde, it's like a warning sign to everyone "Beware the dumbass"

Cake Crazy!!!

Hey again everyone! How's it going?
I decided to post a cake I made recently for my friend Scott's 21st Birthday!

He's a big fan of Spiderman so what better way to celebrate than with a Spidey cake?! I first had to do some research since I know going completely blind into this would have gone horribly wrong so I was on Youtube and found this Beauty.

I decided I wasn't going to do the whole thing the same- but I made a good enough effort!! So this is what I did in pictures!

First of all get a sketch drawn, cut and ready to do a cake- I baked it already but forgot pictures...

 

nom nom nom....

I made buttercream icing but not the same as the video though so it wasn't as stiff either

Straight onto the sponge

ready roll Icing then went straight on on top of the blue icing and then a spray of silver food spray to make the eyes shine

next came the red food colouring...

...still colouring....

...STILL colouring...

Finally!!! the red is done!!! and the black now starts!!

nearing the finish...

Left over blue icing is a gift when it comes to any mistakes at the bottom edges!!!

So there we have it! Scott liked the cake and totally wasn't expecting it (especially since he didn't see it until after LaserTag when it sat in my car for about an hour) 

all I can say is that it's started a bug....

And I did it all while looking after this little Cutie

Jelly (Jell-o) Rainbow

Have you eve had that moment in time when you're mind is completely blank, and has turned itself on Auto-pilot few a good few hours, and then suddenly you get this great idea?

That's what happened to me.
I have no idea how I decided to do this, but since I had spent most of my Summer working I thought I'd chance it anyway- besides, I had nothing else to do either.

And so it came to pass that I would make a jelly Rainbow, or to you Americans out there, Jell-O!!!

 

But as I learnt the hard way-  making a Jell-O Rainbow takes about 7 hours, and won't come out of the bowl nicely when you (try to) turn it onto a plate. Instead it will defy gravity and stick where it is right until you give up on it EVER coming out, and then as you turn it up again, the Jell-O will proceed to flow out at the speed of lightning, covering you in sticky, multi-coloured gelatine goodness =/ 

But I might as well show you what I did anyway! 

First of all I got 6 different Jell-O packs, and Fruit to go with them! 

I can safely say Jell-O cubes are the wierdest things I have ever encountered. They are squishy and slimey at the same time!

then all I did was follow the instructions on the pack of Jell-O, starting with the purple, then green, yellow, orange, pink, and finally red. Simples!







The fruit got washed and cut up and thrown in with it's corresponding Jell-O.

Then time to start pouring! Again, Start off with the purple first, then green, yellow, orange, pink, and finally red again. But what ever you do DO NOT make the same mistake that I did- which was to expect Jell-O to set quicker with Ice around it... it doesn't.
Just stick it in the fridge for an hour before adding the next layer of jell-o and fruit and find something else to do while you're waiting!

And finally the end result!